


be with me so happily

by thestarsaretalking (orphan_account)



Category: Space Force (TV)
Genre: Dating for a bet, First Dates, Fluff, M/M, Pining, its really cute theres like a little dash of angst but its mostly sweet and wholesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28184241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/thestarsaretalking
Summary: Tony has a bet with Brad that he can land a date with Chan, and he takes it a little further than he expected.
Relationships: Angela Ali & Chan Kaifang, Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	be with me so happily

**Author's Note:**

> this past week has been... incredible to say the least. chantony nation stays winning!

After Tony accidentally ruined Naird’s interview with  _ TIME _ magazine, Naird never let him sit in on an interview ever again, which is why Tony was waiting outside Naird’s office for him to finish his interview with  _ The New York Times _ . Out of sheer boredom, Tony fidgeted with a pen while sitting on the edge of Brad’s desk, bothering the one-star general who was trying to get some work done on his computer.

“You seeing anybody? Or are you still hopelessly single?” Tony questioned as he watched Brad freeze at the sudden question.

Swiveling around in his chair abruptly, Brad stammered, “Wha- I- that’s none of your business. I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“So you’re still hopelessly single. Got it,” Tony nodded, looking down at his hands with a smile on his face. From the way Brad crossed his arms and pouted, Tony knew he had successfully struck a nerve.

“No, I didn’t say that! I didn’t say anything! What about you? Aren’t you seeing that uh… Dr. Chan guy? I saw you hanging out with him during lunch the other day,” Brad retorted defensively.

“Chan?” Tony stopped fidgeting with the pen in his hand and placed it aside. “Nah, we’re just friends.”

Brightening up with an idea, Brad sat up straighter and challenged, “I bet you can’t land a date with him.” 

Tony raised his eyebrows skeptically. “How much do you wanna bet?” 

“How about…” Brad trailed off, thinking for a moment before definitely deciding, “five dollars.” 

Shaking his head, Tony exaggeratedly exclaimed, “Ten dollars? C’mon, the stakes are high. I’m putting my heart on the line here.” 

“Fine,” As he collapsed into a frown, Brad sighed as he held out his hand, “Ten dollars. Deal?” 

“Deal.” Tony broke into a smile as he shook Brad’s outstretched hand, stood up, and sprinted to find Chan. 

~

Chan had a wooden stir stick in his mouth while making his morning coffee and minding his own business when Tony sauntered over to him and cheerily greeted, “Heyyy, Chan! So, I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner together sometime.” 

As Chan picked up his cup of coffee from the counter and took the stir stick out of his mouth, he put the stir stick in the cup and mixed the sugar and cream into the coffee. “Do you mean, like, tonight?” 

“Any day you’re free, honestly. It would just be cool if we could go out to dinner together soon,” Tony shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant as he followed Chan, who picked up his cup of coffee and walked out of the cafeteria into the atrium. 

“Um, maybe. I’ll think about it.” Chan offered a small smile and proceeded to walk into the control center to get to work. Admittedly, Tony was dejected by Chan’s response -- it wasn’t exactly a yes but at least it wasn’t exactly rejection. His outright approach didn’t work, meaning Tony had to switch up his strategy. 

In the days following Tony’s first attempt, Tony relentlessly pestered Chan with questions to get to know Chan better and dropped hints to imply that he wanted to go on a date with Chan sometimes (for example, Tony once suggested, “We should hang out more outside of work.”). However, Chan managed to shoot down every effort (Chan responded to Tony’s suggestion of hanging out more outside of work with “I’m really busy, sorry.”). Tony couldn’t tell if Chan was being oblivious or not, but he really wanted the ten dollars as well as proof that he could do what Brad didn’t expect him to do. 

One day, Chan and Tony were walking outside the base together, and as they passed by the Meal Armstrong stand, Tony asked, “What about movies? What’s your favorite movie?” 

Stifling a laugh, Chan glanced up at Tony and replied, “I don’t have a favorite movie.” 

Tony stopped in his tracks, his jaw dropping in utter disbelief. “You don’t have a favorite movie? C’mon, I’m sure you have at  _ least _ one favorite movie. Just name, like, any movie that you like.” 

He was so desperate to get an answer that he didn’t notice that Naird was angrily yelling his name from a distance until Chan pointed at the screaming general. “Naird’s calling for you.” 

“Shit, okay. I gotta go, but this isn’t over. I’ll find out your favorite movie if it’s the last thing I do,” Tony insisted before running off. With an affectionate smile, Chan watched Tony run over to Naird. 

Angela, who was talking to Erin at Meal Armstrong, saw the whole ordeal and walked over to tap Chan gently on the shoulder. “Why haven’t you agreed to go on a date with F. Tony yet? He’s been trying to get you to go on a date with him and you obviously like him.” 

“You don’t know that I like him,” Chan retorted defensively, quickly peeling his eyes away from Tony. 

As she exasperatedly crossed her arms, Angela raised an eyebrow and gave Chan a skeptical look. “Are you kidding me?” 

“Okay, yeah. You’re right,” conceded Chan as he looked down at his shoes, “but I just don’t know if it’s a good idea to agree to go out with him.” 

“Just go for it. What’s the worst that could happen?” Angela encouraged, watching Naird angrily gesticulate as he talked to Tony, presumably about the confusing tweet about shoelaces Tony issued earlier that day. “Besides, if you keep waiting around in fear, you might regret the missed opportunity.” 

Chan lifted his eyes to observe Tony respond to Naird’s frustrated ramble. “That’s a pretty good point. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try.” 

“That’s the spirit!” Angela exclaimed, patting Chan on the back. Her enthusiasm was a little overboard as the force of her pat made Chan stumble forward and almost fall flat on his face; luckily, he managed to catch himself in the nick of time so he saved himself the embarrassment of breaking his nose in front of all his co-workers. 

The next day, Friday -- almost a full week since Tony had started pestering Chan about the date -- Tony ran over to Chan in the parking lot after work as the scientist was walking to his car. “Chan! I know you said you weren’t interested but I was thinking we could-”    
  


Abruptly cutting off Tony’s question, Chan casually answered, “I’ll go out with you. I’m free this weekend.” 

“Wait, really?” Tony was taken aback at Chan’s nonchalance. He was so prepared to be met with resistance that he wrote a list of reasons as to why Chan should go on a date with him on the palm of his hand in Sharpie so he could convince Chan to finally agree. 

“Mhm,” Chan nodded, unlocking his car with the simple press of a button on his black car keys, “I heard a new bar opened near the plaza that’s near here. We could meet up there.” 

Tony’s eyes lit up at Chan’s idea. “That would be awesome! Okay, uhhh, are you free at around eight on Saturday?” 

Before replying, Chan thought for a moment and agreed, “That works. See you then!” 

Tony waited until Chan drove his car away to whoop victoriously. Unfortunately, he forgot that the parking wasn’t completely empty and his reaction garnered weird looks from his co-workers who were tired from working all day and just wanted to drive home in peace. 

On the day of the date, Tony found that he was more nervous than he expected. In the back of his mind, Tony knew that he had the ability to easily win Chan over, but he still checked and double-checked his hair and smoothed out the wrinkles in his flannel shirt in the mirror before leaving to make sure that he looked presentable. 

When Chan arrived at the bar, he saw that Tony was already sitting at the bar, waiting for him to show up. Tony brightened when he saw Chan arrive and gestured to the empty seat next to him. After ordering drinks, the two made conversation, in which they both threw in occasional playful flirting. At one point, Chan mused, “I wonder what you were like in college.” 

“Oh man, I was a mess in college. I spent most of my time getting wasted and hooking up with boys who weren’t as cute as you,” Tony chuckled, gently bumping his shoulder against Chan’s. 

Trying not to blush, Chan deadpanned, “Wow, I can’t imagine that at all.” 

Tony laughed, and Chan couldn’t resist the urge to break into a brilliant smile. There was something about Tony that made his company easily enjoyable, and by the end of the date, both Chan and Tony found themselves reluctant to stop spending time together. 

Before Tony stood up from his seat, he carefully asked, “Hey, can I get your number? I actually really enjoyed tonight and I was thinking we could maybe meet up and do this again.” 

“Sure!” Chan put his number into Tony’s phone and handed his phone to Tony so he could do the same. Tony grinned when he saw Chan’s phone background was a photo of him hugging a potted plant (what a dork). Then, the two left the bar and parted ways. 

Later that night, as Tony was brushing his teeth, he heard a  _ ding! _ and picked up his phone to check who had texted him. 

_ Chan: hey! i had a lot of fun tonight :) would you be up for another date next weekend? _

“Yes!” Tony cheered, forgetting that he still had a toothbrush in his mouth. His green toothbrush clattered onto the floor and Tony sighed. He couldn’t have just one good thing without something bad happening. 

~

On Monday, Tony burst into Brad’s office in his usual rambunctious manner and startled Brad by shoving his phone into the one-star general’s face. “Brad! Look!” 

“I’m trying to. Can you move your phone a little farther from my face? I can’t read anything“ demanded Brad, who was clearly annoyed. Tony complied, and as Brad slowly read the text from Chan, his heart sank. Brad didn’t want to give Tony the satisfaction of proving that he was wrong so he decided to suggest, “How about this: if you can actually start dating him, I’ll give you the ten dollars and another extra five dollars. If you can’t, I won’t give you anything at all.” 

Without any hesitation, Tony excitedly replied, “Deal!” 

Moving from “just talking” to “dating” status took some skill, and Tony carefully planned his moves to make sure he played his cards right. He tried not to come on too strong as to not scare Chan off but he also acted enthusiastic enough to show Chan that he was interested. And date by date, Tony gradually grew closer with Chan and approached a point where he could officially ask him out. Still, Tony had to wait for the right moment to make a move, or else his whole plan could collapse and he would lose the bet. 

One night, after Chan and Tony went out to dinner together, they were walking outside in the chilly Colorado night together. Tony glanced up at the silver stars scattered across the skies and contemplated, “Do you think it’s possible to see one of the Space Force crafts up there from here?” 

Chan snorted and shook his head. “No, obviously not. You wouldn’t be able to see any of the space crafts from here, but if you look carefully, you could probably see Arcturus, Rigil Kentaurus, Canopus, Vega, Capella, Procyon…” 

As Chan listed the names of stars with names that sounded like random letters smashed together, Tony gazed at him in complete awe and admiration. Chan seemed to be completely oblivious to the way that Tony was staring at him as if he were the only person on the planet and continued listing, “Achernar, Sirius A, Betelgeuse, Fr-” 

Tony cut Chan off mid-sentence by leaning down and kissing him on the mouth. Chan was obviously surprised but responded a second later, kissing Tony back and wrapping an arm around Tony’s waist to pull him closer. 

Tony’s heart was pounding loudly when the kiss was broken but Tony managed to gather the words to ask, “I know it’s been a long time coming but Chan, will you be my boyfriend?” 

“Yes, I will,” Chan smiled and stood up on his tippy toes to kiss Tony again under the millions of stars twinkling down at them. 

The next day at work, Tony proudly walked into the base holding hands with Chan. He pointedly glanced over at Brad, who was sitting in the cafeteria and had spotted the two holding hands, and stuck out his tongue. Tony kissed Chan before Chan left to go to the laboratory and Tony waltzed over to Brad. 

“Brad! Where’s my fifteen dollars?” 

At that point, Brad should’ve just given up and coughed up the fifteen dollars he owed Tony, but he was so unwilling to accept defeat that he decided to prolong the bet because he would much rather lose his money than lose his pride. “No, I’m not going to give it to you. Okay, um, how about I give you a dollar for every week you keep this up?” 

Tony raised his eyebrows, surprised that Brad was so persistent, but he clasped his hands together and exclaimed, “Man, I’m gonna rake in so much cash.” 

To prove that he was still dating Chan, Tony made an extra effort to be overly affectionate with Chan when they were at work, meaning he always had an arm around Chan’s shoulders or holding Chan’s hand. Chan didn’t seem to mind at all; he even sometimes voluntarily reached for Tony’s hand. 

At first, for Tony, these public displays of affection were mostly for Brad’s benefit but he found himself holding Chan’s hand when nobody was around. Tony started noticing Chan’s little habits, like the way he would sometimes get distracted by a random object, stop talking, and pick up that object to fiddle with it while he continued rambling.

He loved how Chan’s hands were warm, especially when they were walking together holding hands in the chilly evening air. He loved how Chan’s eyes lit up when Chan found an object he had misplaced and had been searching for. 

Then, one day, when Tony was watching Chan write in his notebook with an expression of concentration etched on his face, Tony brushed a loose strand of hair out of Chan’s face. And suddenly, it hit him: he had stopped pretending and had actually fallen head over heels for his boyfriend. He didn’t care about the bet anymore; he only cared about being with Chan. 

Everything was going great until the day Chan found out about the bet. That was the same day Angela and Brad were out running errands together. They were sitting in the waiting room of an office, an awkward silence stuffing the stale air. Brad broke that silence by complaining out of the blue, “Fuck Tony is so annoying.” 

“Tell me about it,” Angela agreed exasperatedly, sighing as she recalled all the instances the social media manager pissed her off, and continued to scroll through her social media feed on her phone. “Ever since he and Chan started dating, I’ve been forced to spend more time around that douchebag. But, you know, he makes Chan happy so it’s whatever.” 

“You know, I was responsible for that,” confessed Brad rather proudly. 

Angela put down her phone and glanced over at Brad, blinking in confusion. “What?” 

“Yeah, I bet Tony ten bucks that he couldn’t land a date with Chan and then I raised that bet to fifteen bucks if he managed to actually get with Chan. And when he started dating Chan, I told him that I’d give him two dollars for every week he dated Chan,” Brad paused as he tried to count the weeks in his head and worriedly frowned when he realized that Chan and Tony had almost been dating for two months. “And now I owe Tony a lot.” 

Quickly turning her phone back on, Angela texted Chan: “dude, tony is lying to you. ask him about the bet.” 

When Chan received Angela’s text, he was eating ice cream while sitting on the bench next to Tony, who had an arm wrapped around his shoulders. Chan, bewildered by Angela’s text, stopped eating his ice cream to question, “Hey Tony, Angela just texted me asking me to ask you about the bet? What does that mean?” 

“Oh… “ Tony trailed off, setting his cup of ice cream down on the bench next to him. “So, uh, remember how I kept asking you to go on a date with me?” 

“Yeah,” Chan replied, unsure of where this was leading. He couldn’t possibly imagine why Tony seemed hesitant to tell him about the bet. What could be so bad about the bet? 

“It’s because Brad bet me money that I couldn’t land a date with you. And he also bet that I wouldn’t be able to date you.” Tony winced as he realized how harsh it sounded aloud. 

Oh, so that’s why Tony was so reluctant to tell him. 

“Wait, so you’re just dating me for this bet? This whole relationship is just a joke to you?” Chan stood up, backing away from Tony with heartbreak written all over his face. 

“No! Well, it started off because of the bet but I really like you a lot. This has always been more than just the bet for me, I promise,” Tony earnestly insisted. The way Chan was looking at him as if he were a complete stranger made Tony feel awful. 

Hardly believing Tony, Chan crossed his arms and bitterly asked, “How do I know you’re not just saying this for the bet?” 

“I really mean it. I swear on my life. I won’t even take the money. The bet doesn’t matter to me. I’m sorry I haven’t been honest with you but I promise that I’m not keeping anything else from you.” Tony held up both of his hands as if to show that he really wasn’t hiding anything from Chan. 

For a moment, Chan simply skeptically stared at Tony before he sat down on the bench, picked up his cup of ice cream, and started eating it again. Tony exhaled in relief and hopefully inquired, “Is everything cool?” 

“Yeah, I believe you,” Chan nonchalantly answered as he dug his spoon into the ice cream. A small smile appeared on his face as he continued, “but you should get the money. That way we can split it.” 

Tony chuckled and wrapped his arm around Chan’s shoulders again, pulling Chan closer. “Brad’s gonna be so pissed.” 

They both burst into laughter, and Tony realized that Chan was the one good thing he had been searching for all his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> pls leave a comment or a kudo on your way out! perhaps check out the [chantony site](chantonyforce.carrd.co) i made?


End file.
